They say justice delayed is justice denied. And it is true in its essence. However the family of Louisa Dunne finally got closure. And that’s justice too.
In 1967, Louisa Dunne, a 75-year-old woman from Bristol, was found sexually assaulted and murdered in her home. The killer vanished. The evidence was stored—her blue skirt, some hair strands—silent witnesses waiting for science to catch up.
For years, detectives tried everything. Fingerprints, interviews, reviews in 2009 and again in 2013. Still, no name. No closure.
Until now.
A forensic scientist tested her skirt again. He found sperm cells—still intact after 57 years. From them, he built a full DNA profile. It matched a 92-year-old man named Ryland Headley, who had quietly moved away from Bristol just after the murder. The odds of the DNA belonging to anyone else were said to be “a billion times lower.”
But that wasn’t all.
A palm print found in Louisa’s home? It matched Headley too—down to 25 individual markers.
And now, after nearly six decades, the trial has begun. He denies all charges. Yet justice may finally be catching up.
